Thank you very much, Chair.
I want to thank Mr. Hayes for taking the time to be here today. I also noted that your opening remarks were, word for word, exactly the same as on October 12, minus the last sentence.
Chair, we all knew that Mr. Hayes would not have much to contribute by way of answering questions in this committee. I think that we knew that. Now that we've received this table-dropped motion, I understand why, perhaps, we are here today. I find that to be a bit disingenuous.
I remember the last meeting we had the last year. We suspended the meeting. All members from all parties had gotten together and worked on a motion on this very topic. We had laid it out. We built consensus, because that is what our committee should be doing.
For us to be here, knowing full well that we have a witness who is not able to speak about a report that will not be tabled until February 12 and having spent a whole meeting working out a plan on this.... Now we go back to another emergency meeting, just like the one on October 12 when we heard from Ms. Hogan, who said, “[A]s you know, since this report has not yet been tabled in Parliament, I am not in a position to discuss our findings.” She repeated that consistently throughout the meeting.
If we wanted to discuss the motion that is being presented by Mr. Genuis, then why are we wasting Mr. Hayes' time in being here? We could have just called a meeting for this motion. Better yet, we could have called a meeting at the regular time our meetings arise, which is literally three or four days from now.